Review: The Consort Trio Makes Its Debut

Published on: 18 Nov, 2024
Updated on: 2 Dec, 2024

The Consort Trio: Samuel Lewis, Kim Mai Hua and Edward Warner.

By Gillian Lloyd

Three accomplished young musicians gave their debut recital to a large audience at Guildford United Reformed Church on Sunday (November 17).

The Consort Trio (Kim Mai Hua – violin, Samuel Lewis – flute, Edward Warner – piano), young players who are all second-year scholarship students at The Royal College of Music, began their innovative and attractive programme with Shostakovich’s ‘Five Pieces’ for two violins and piano.

Playing the piece the trio demonstrated a lovely sound and an excellent sense of ensemble, finding in these pieces a range of moods from joy and fun through tenderness and bittersweetness to virtuosity and humour.

The group is keen to promote music from their own generation, and ‘Lost Opportunity’, by 24-year-old Felix Turin Eichler, with its filigree texture, wisps of melody and pervading sense of regret, clearly struck a chord with them.

Gaubert’s ‘Médailles antiques’ drew from the players wide contrasts of tone colour and an impressive sense of drama, whilst their performance of Mel Bonis’ ‘Suite en trio’ took the audience from grace and melancholy in the first movement through elegance and serenity in the second to seemingly effortless agility in the final Scherzo.

The sinister cross-rhythms of Piazzolla’s ‘Esqualo’ seemed a little hurried for the texture, but the violin cadenza was stunning, and the piece contrasted well with the moody ‘Oblivion’. The pictorial quality of Nino Rota’s Trio showed just why this composer was so renowned for his film music.

This was a thoughtfully-chosen and thoroughly delightful programme beautifully played. It deserves another outing very soon.